Board of Trustees Meet for the Final Time of 2017

NJIT’s Board of Trustees Met for Its Final Session of the Year on Thursday, November 9, 2017 in the Eberhardt Hall NJIT Alumni Center Board Room.

According to NJIT’s website, the Board of Trustees is the “legal governing body of the university appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state senate.” The Board meets about six times a year to discuss strategies, funds, and other key topics affecting the state of the university. This month’s public meeting focused on the approval of resolutions, Research & Growth Strategies, as well as fundraising goals for 2018.

Following role call, Chair Mr. Stephen DePalma addressed a number of Action Items to be voted on by members of the Board. Resolutions that passed unanimously included an acquisition of 200-214 Warren Street, the MLK Gateway Project, as well as an extension of President Bloom’s contract.

President Bloom then proceeded to give his regular report. Speaking on the topic of the university’s new partnership with IBM as the first and only “IBM University,” President Bloom stated, “This is a very big leg-up for our students.”

Additionally, the President spoke on the formation of the New Jersey Continuous Manufacturing Institute in partnership with Rutgers University, as well as NJIT’s new place as one of three internationally-ranked institutions from New Jersey, next to Rutgers and Princeton.

After the conclusion of President Bloom’s report, the floor was turned over to Provost Dr. Fadi P. Deek and Sr. Vice Provost for Research Dr. Atam P. Dhawan who presented the Research and Growth Strategies Report under the 2020 Vision Plan.

Dr. Dhawan spoke in detail about the recent re-organization of the Research Office, which provides faculty with a more streamlined process for preparing proposals for grants. On this topic, President Bloom added that this structure makes the university “highly competitive in seeking research grants, research contracts, and opportunities…this is very, very important for the university going forward.”

According to the presentation, the university has also experienced a 76% increase in external academic awards since 2014 in addition to a 7% increase in patents and Intellectual Property since 2016, with 16 patents filed this fiscal year and more than 100 now in the pipeline. Of these growth strategies and their progress, Dr. Dhawan said, “We…expect that [we are] not only going to be ahead of the 2020 Vision target, but we expect that the projection will lead us either the next year or the following year across the 2020 target.”

The meeting then moved to the University Senate Report made by Dr. Deek, who stated that shared governance and the culture around strategic planning are being cited as “points of pride” for the university, and the report on the goals for fundraising in the Fiscal Year 2018. With respect to FY-2018, the report stated that the university will meet its tuition projections for the year.

Alongside the confirmed schedule for Board of Trustees meetings, the minutes for this public session meeting of the Board of Trustees will be posted on the NJIT website. The next Board of Trustees Meeting will occur on Thursday, February 8, 2018 in the Eberhardt Hall NJIT Alumni Center Board Room.